Surf Air Mobility (SAM), a regional air mobility platform, has completed the acquisition of Southern Airways.
The combination of SAM and Southern will provide the basis for an expanded, nationwide regional air mobility platform.
Combined, Surf Air and Southern served 450,000 passengers across 48 cities with over 75,000 departures in 2022.
They had revenue of $100.6m for the full year 2022, up 44.6 per cent year on year.
They have an aircraft financing facility with Jetstream for up to $450m to finance further expansion, and a fleet order with Textron Aviation to enable the growth of SAM’s fleet by up to 150 Cessna Grand Caravans.
“Surf Air Mobility is building a regional air mobility platform to sustainably connect the world’s communities. We are thrilled to announce the completion of our transaction, combining Surf Air and Southern into Surf Air Mobility, the largest commuter airline in the US by scheduled departures. We are now well-positioned to build a platform that delivers accessible, affordable, and sustainable regional travel for our customers,” said Stan Little, CEO of SAM.
“Our public listing is just the beginning, and we look forward to sharing our journey as we execute on our vision to advance the future of flight.”
SAM intends to accelerate the adoption of green flying by developing, together with its commercial partners, hybrid-electric and fully-electric powertrain technology to upgrade existing fleets.
Surf Air Mobility
By creating a financing and services infrastructure to enable this transition at an industry-wide level, Surf Air Mobility believes it can bring electrified aircraft to market at scale and substantially reduce the cost and environmental impact of regional flying.
SAM believes such cost and environmental impact reductions are achievable by the end of the decade, and that operating as a publicly-traded company and having efficient access to growth capital will enable and accelerate the implementation of its strategic plan.
Sudhin Shahani, co-founder of Surf Air Mobility, said: “Our end-state is electrification, but our flywheel begins with flying more passengers via network expansion and providing solutions to operators via Aircraft-as-a-Service (ACaaS), which we believe will drive growth in the near- and mid-term.
“Surf Air Mobility is a scaled – and growing – regional air travel company today, and we believe our path to electrification via supplemental type certification will position us as a capital efficient, technology-enabled, first mover in the regional air ecosystem.”
Photo: Screengrab from SAM promotional video
Subscribe to the FINN weekly newsletter
